November 12, 2001
BAYLOR UNIVERSITY graduates Heather Mercer with her father walk away from a U.S. Embassy van that transported her and other aid workers to freedom in Pakistan Nov. 15, after they were rescued from the hands of the Taliban in Afghanistan.The workers with Shelter Now International had been imprisoned on charges of enticing Muslims to convert to Christianity.
Detainees thank God at press conference
after rescue from Taliban
___By John Hall
___Staff Writer
___Fighting back tears, two Baylor University graduates thanked God for pulling them through their more than three-month detainment by Afghanistan's Taliban government and described a series of Hollywood-style events that led to their rescue at a Nov. 16 news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan.
___"Thank you to everyone who has been in there with us," said Heather Mercer, 24, who, like her American companion, Dayna Curry, 30, looked healthy. "Even if we had a whole lifetime to say thank you, I don't think it would be adequate."
See more: Baylor grads free at last
___The former detainees were working for Shelter Now International, a German-based humanitarian aid group, when Taliban officials arrested them Aug. 3. They and six other Shelter Now International workers and 16 Afghans reportedly were charged with attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity. The 16Afghans also have been freed.
DAYNA CURRIE, with fellow prisoner Diane Thomas of Australia.
___Curry said she was "flabbergasted" by the charges, which she called "80 percent" false. She acknowledged that she did give a book that contained stories about Jesus to an Afghan family, though she said she used to the book to help teach Afghans how to read. She also said she did show the family part of the "Jesus" video, which has been distributed by worldwide by several denominational groups, including the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
___The former detainees recounted how their faith in God helped get them through sleepless nights of hearing the bombings occur in the Afghanistan capital Kabul.
___God "never left me," Mercer said. "The moments I was most afraid, he was with me. I slept under the bed during the bombings, and he stayed with me."
___After several delays in the trial due to the terrorist attacks in the United States Sept. 11 and the ensuing military action in Afghanistan by a U.S.-led coalition, the women said the last few days were some of the most frightening and most joyous times of their lives.
___On Nov. 13, when the anti-Taliban forces began to seize the capital city of Kabul, where the women were detained, Taliban officials removed the prisoners from their cells, Curry said. The detainees then watched Taliban forces run by them in full retreat as they rode on top of a rocket launcher toward Kandahar. Along the journey, Curry said Taliban officials told the internationals they should write to their families requesting money to ransom them out of the country.
___Despite their fears, Curry said, the group remained calm during the journey, singing, laughing and reading Scripture.
___Taliban officials then put them in a steel shipping container, said Curry, who tried to keep warm by curling into the fetal position. The detainees then were taken to a prison in Ghazni, a town about 50 miles southwest of Kabul, where they quickly felt the bombings of the anti-Taliban forces they had become accustom to in Kabul, Mercer said. She said the group began a prayer meeting and saw the Taliban troops fleeing the city.
___The detainees then feared for the worst when they heard a group of troops trying to get into the jail, Mercer said. Rather than being greeted by gunfire, however, the group heard shouts of: "You're free! You're free! The city's free! The Taliban are gone!"
___According to Mercer, once the fighting ended, a celebration ensued as men shaved their Taliban-mandated beards and women removed their head coverings. She said the detainees took a hike through the city with a military escort to take in what had occurred. The freed detainees then spent some time in an Afghan home before completing what Mercer called a "very complicated, difficult process" that involved several last-minute cancellations before they attempted to meet a military escort out of the country.
___Trying not to be seen as they were escorted by a group of troops, the detainees went to a field outside Ghazni, where they were to meet a helicopter that would take them to Pakistan, Mercer said. In order to help the pilots find the group, members of the group lit made a pile of their head coverings and lit them on fire to signal their location.
___"It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," Mercer said, "to be taken prisoner by one government and to walk out of prison a free person with another government."
___The detainees were flown to Islamabad, where they hugged and spoke to family members who had been in constant communication with the U.S. State Department throughout the detainment. Curry's mother, Mary Cassell, and Mercer's father, John Mercer, could hardly hold back tears as they described the "wonderful" moment of seeing their daughters again.
___Despite their detainment, neither American said she held any animosity toward either the Taliban or the Afghan people. Curry said the Taliban treated them as well as they could have under the circumstances and even said some of the officials loved them like sisters and encouraged them to pray and sing to God.
___Not only do the women not feel any resentment toward the nation in which they were held captive, they hoped their detainment would help the Afghan people and did not rule out a personal involvement in the country after a debriefing in central Europe and some time in the United States.
___"We believe because we were there Afghanistan has received so much more attention, which is what they need," Curry said. "They need prayer; they need a miracle."
___"In so many ways because our hearts are there, Afghanistan has become our home," Mercer said. "We want to help Afghans in any way possible."
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